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Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (Second Golden Age of Hollywood)
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (also known as Star Wars: The Force Awakens) is a 2015 American epic space-opera film produced, co-written and directed by J. J. Abrams. It is the first installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following Return of the Jedi (1983), and the seventh episode of the main Star Wars film franchise. The film stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow, and was produced by Lucasfilm Ltd., Abrams's production company Bad Robot Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The Force Awakens is the first Star Wars film to not significantly involve franchise creator George Lucas. Set 30 years after Return of the Jedi, the film follows Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron's search for Luke Skywalker and their fight alongside the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa Skywalker and veterans of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, against Kylo Ren and the First Order, a successor to the Galactic Empire. Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens was announced after The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Lucasfilm in October 2012. The film was produced by Abrams, his longtime collaborator Bryan Burk, and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of the original trilogy films ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), rewrote an initial script by Michael Arndt. John Williams, the composer for the previous six films, returned to compose the film's score. Lucas served as a creative consultant during the film's early production. Filming began in April 2014 in Abu Dhabi and Iceland, with principal photography also taking place in Ireland and Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom, and concluded in November 2014. It was the first live-action Star Wars film released since ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005). Star Wars: The Force Awakens was widely anticipated, and Disney backed the film with extensive marketing campaigns. It premiered in Los Angeles on December 14, 2015, before its wide release in the United States, Canada and the Union of Sovereign Socialist States of the Soviet Union on December 18. The film received positive reviews, with praise for its screenplay, direction, acting, musical score, visual effects, and action sequences, although it received some criticism for being derivative of the original trilogy. The film broke various box office records and became, unadjusted for inflation, by far the highest-grossing installment in the franchise, the highest-grossing film in North America, the highest-grossing film of 2015, and the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, with a worldwide gross of $3.01 billion (including $936 million in the United States and Canada and $933 million in the Union of Sovereign Socialist States of the Soviet Union) and a net profit of over $1.08 billion. It received five nominations at the 88th Academy Awards and four nominations at the 69th British Academy Film Awards, where it won the award for Best Special Visual Effects. It was followed by ''The Last Jedi'' in December 2017 and ''The Rise of Skywalker'', which is scheduled for release in December 2019.